Studied by 1 person
Criminal Justice in America by George F. Cole, Christopher E. Smith, and Christina DeJong POLS 3600 at UGA
Legal Responsibility
The accountability of an individual for a crime because of the perpetrator’s actions and the circumstances of the illegal act
Civil Law
Law regulating the relationships between or among individuals, usually involving property, contracts, or business disputes
Substantive Criminal Law
Law that defines acts that are subject to punishment and specifies the punishments for such offenses
Procedural Criminal Law
Law defining the procedures that criminal justice officials must follow in enforcement, adjudication, and corrections
Felonies
Crimes usually carrying a penalty of death or incarceration for more than one year in prison
Misdemeanors
Offenses less serious than felonies and usually punishable by incarceration of no more than one yar in jail, or by probation or intermediate sanctions
Civil Infractions
Minor offenses that are typically punishable by small fines and produce no criminal record for the offender
Inchoate or incomplete offenses
Conduct that is criminal even through the harm that the law seeks to prevent has not been done, but merely planned or attempted
Mens rea
“Guilty mind” or blameworthy state of mind, necessary for legal responsibility; criminal intent, as distinguishable from innocent intent
Entrapment
The defense that the individual was induced by the police to commit the criminal act
Bill of Rights
the first 10 amendments added to the US Constitution to provide specific rights for individuals, including criminal justice rights concerning searches, trials, and punishments
Self-Incrimination
The act of exposing oneself to prosecution by being pressured to respond to questions when the answers may reveal that one has committed a crime. The Fifth Amendment protects defendants against compelled _____
Double Jeopardy
The subjecting of a person to prosecution more than once in the same jurisdiction for the same criminal act; prohibited by the Fifth Amendment
Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
Case deciding that the protections of the Bill of Rights apply only to actions of the federal government
Powell v. Alabama (1932)
Case deciding that an attorney must be provided to a poor defendant facing the death penalty
Fundamental Fairness
A legal doctrine supporting the idea that so long as a state’s conduct maintains basic standards of fairness, the Constitution has not been violated
Incorporation
The extension of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to make binding on state governments many of the rights guaranteed in the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution (the Bill of Rights)
Grand Jury
Body of citizens drawn from the community to hear evidence presented by the prosecutor in order to decide whether enough evidence exists to file charges against a defendant
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Case deciding that indigent defendants have a right to counsel when charged with serious crimes for which they could face six or more months of incarceration
